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Monthly Archives: December 2014

I knocked one of my three current quilting projects into the finish column last week. Here's the full report on Basic Shapes, my IG (instagram) Mini Swap quilt. It has made it's way to Becky, so I can finally tell you all about it. This project was a lot of firsts for me.

first quilt swap

first IG swap

first medallion style quilt

first flying geese

first time using Rita Hutchens' tubular strip piecing method

first frankenbatting

first time quilting using aurifil (I have been piecing with it)

first time using 1 3/4" binding strips

I loved watching the progress in the IG community. It was so inspiring (and at times intimidating) to see all the beautiful work being done by the hundreds of other quilters participating. I'm hooked, seriously. I've already signed up for two three more IG swaps (the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap: round 3, as a late addition to be a swap angel in the Disney 2015 swap, and to the new rainbow mini swap).

Then my 2.5-year-old helper had to take a picture... apparently we had different understandings of what "Do you want to help Mama take some pictures of her quilt?" meant.

A little on my process:

I had a hard time making a plan for my quilt and decided to start with doing something I had never done. I chose a blue fabric to make some flying geese. I also made some with orange. I made the flying geese using Rita Hutchens' Totally Tubular Strip Piecing after seeing her speak at a guild meeting. Halfway in, I decided to alternate the blue and orange geese. They aren't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with them. I'll definitely be doing more of Rita's magical tube piecing. I loved the geometry of the process.

I decided the flying geese would be a fun first border on a medallion style quilt, so I found a 9" star block to use in my center, pleased that the math worked out and I had 32 geese, with a total length of 36". I got stuck there for a while. There were 120 pieces in that 14" square. I kinda didn't know what to do next.

I decided to do the thin green border as a rest from the busy center. Then having used the green, I wanted to avoid it in the final border. I was worried that the last two borders were too simple, but I think with so much detail in the middle it worked out very nicely. In the end, the quilt finished at about 18" square. I'm looking forward to another medallion style quilt. Maybe by myself, or I'd love to do one round robin style with a group.

(I guess I thought the blue side was the top when I was working... it ended up on the bottom corner.)My frankenbatting. It was remarkably easy to piece together with a 3-step zigzag stitch.

I had a great time quilting it. It's the most dense quilting I've done. I worked without marking my lines (cause I think I just don't have the patience for that) and I really felt like I was in control. It was the first time I've quilted with Aurifil thread and I am so pleased! It was so smooth and I had zero thread breaks while I worked. This is amazing compared to normal for me. I'm sold on Aurifil and just picked up some red thread for quilting the mystery quilt. (I see a collection of Aurifil in my future... I'm eyeing the Aurifil color card.)

I attach my binding by machine, and usually use a 2" width, but I've found that it's a little wider than I want it to be, and the stitching visible on the back is 1/8" from the edge of the binding. I tried the 1 3/4" width on this project and it was a little tight, some places the stitching on the back is on the edge of the binding, but I was overall pleased. I added corners at the top for hanging.

I haven't yet received my mini quilt from the swap, but there is so much amazing work being done by all the swappers. Check out #igminiswap on Instagram.

Working on the Schnitzel and Boo Mini swap for a partner who likes Tula Pink... I decided this would be a great time to try out some envelope blocks. I haven't paper pieced in a long time... since I made the Ribbit quilt many years ago. I got my hands on a copy of Patchwork, Please! (yeah I know, I'm about 18 months late to the party!) and got to work. These weren't the fastest couple of blocks, but i'm happy with how they turned out and I'm looking forward to making more.

Since I declared that I should only have three quilting projects in my work pile at a time (a system I'm already gaming and trying to rethink -- more on that later) my ALYoF December Goal should certainly be one of them. Also, of the three projects, I have been working on two of them. So, here it is, I declare that I will finish the other one, my mystery quilt, in December. (P.S. I also have to finish and ship my IG mini quilt this week and I'd like to finish up my Little Letters quilts... so perhaps by this time next month I'll have three new projects on my list!)

Finishing the mystery quilt is good for a number of reasons:

The top is almost done.

I have new project ideas that I'd like to work on.

I'd like to give it as a Christmas gift.

I started it in 2006!

It still doesn't have a name. I'd love to hear your ideas! (It feels a little Christmasy to me, but the backing definitely isn't.)